I had an interesting experience purchasing this perfume. I had been in search of a new daily perfume for a long time. I wasn't very pleased with a lot of the name brand perfumes in department stores, so I went to a niche perfume shop in my city. The owner of the shop was unreal, like someone out of a novel. She had this uncanny ability to basically divine a fragrance from customers. She inquired about my favourite notes, and asked if there was something in particular I wanted to try (I thought I would like L'Artisan Parfumeur's Dzing). She pulled out Pyschotrope and insisted I try it, claiming that it would 'sparkle' on my skin.

I still don't know how someone can understand perfumes like that. It's gotta be witchcraft ;) The perfume was substantially more compatible with me than all of the others. It has a lot of jasmine and green notes, with a leather-y scent near the end, that still retains the lovely jasmine notes. Its intoxicating.

I think that body chemistry has a lot to do with how perfumes are worn. I advise anyone to go to a niche perfume shop, where the owner will spend time to find you a compatible fragrance. I've worn Psychotrope for a few years now, and gotten many compliments. I can't wait to go back to that shop in a few years, and see what perfume she picks for me the next time.

Psychotrope fits this mysterious, rainy spring mood I've been feeling for the past week or so. I love what I think to be the name, after looking it up in French: "a substance having an effect on the psyche," "antidepressant," and "hallucinogenic." The top is all green, jasmine, and a kind of freshness that smells like the rain outside my window. The florals then come forward, jasmine, cyclamen, and violet, followed by an effortless drydown to a leather base, almost reading as vinyl, with a subtle hint of musk. These unusual notes complement each other harmoniously, and despite the dark, strange, leather base, the whole composition reads as elegant and sophisticated. The overall effect is beautiful and unnerving.

My experience with Psychotrope is kind of an amalgam of many of the previous reviewers' observations. Honestly, I had to restrain myself from immediately washing it off after the initial two spritzes, so strong was the very potent plastic note. It took a good 30 minutes for that to die down, but once it did, Psychotrope became a very different fragrance. At drydown, it is remarkably aquatic and soapy, with a slightly green aspect. It's almost like a lotus blossom bar of soap, very fresh and summery. It's not quite me, but it's actually kind of pretty, once it overcomes the very bizarre and out-of-place plastic opening. If you like soapy or aquatic scents, you may want to give this one a try.

Bug spray, that cyclamen is hideous. This is trying to be a smart dry green fragrance in theory, but it just doesn't work in practice. So glad I bought a sample, thankfully it disappeared within an hour. PG Corps et Ames is a better bet for an unusual green yet distinctly hypnotic fragrance.

Next time you're in a Crabtree & Evelyn shop, smell the avocado soap (the milled kind, not the glycerine kind). Psychotrope is uncannily similar. C&E's avocado soap is my favorite C&E product, and I've always wanted a perfume with its scent. Now that I've got it, I'm not sure I want it. Psychotrope smells so soapy that I can almost taste it (what did I say to offend this time, Mom?), and my recoil instinct kicks in. Even a tiny dab is po-TENT.